Religion

Religion, human beings’ relation to that which they regard as holy, sacred, absolute, spiritual, divine, or worthy of especial reverence. It is also commonly regarded as consisting of the way people deal with ultimate concerns about their lives and their fate after death. In many traditions, this relation and these concerns are expressed in terms of one’s relationship with or attitude toward gods or spirits; in more humanistic or naturalistic forms of religion, they are expressed in terms of one’s relationship with or attitudes toward the broader human community or the natural world. In many religions, texts are deemed to have scriptural status, and people are esteemed to be invested with spiritual or moral authority. Believers and worshippers participate in and are often enjoined to perform devotional or contemplative practices such as prayer, meditation, or particular rituals. Worship, moral conduct, right belief, and participation in religious institutions are among the constituent elements of the religious life.

Detail of Religion, a mural in lunette from the Family and Education series by Charles …

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methodological approach to the study of religion that emphasizes the standpoint of the believer. Drawing insights from the philosophical tradition of phenomenology, especially as exemplified by Edmund Husserl (1859–1938), it seeks to uncover religion’s essence through investigations...

discipline concerned with the philosophical appraisal of human religious attitudes and of the real or imaginary objects of those attitudes, God or the gods. The philosophy of religion is an integral part of philosophy as such and embraces central issues regarding the nature and extent of human...

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People often use the word religion to mean the worship of a god or gods. But some religions do not have gods. One thing that all religions have in common is that they help their followers to find meaning in the world. Many people want to know where the world came from. Many also want to know what happens after death. Most religions offer some sort of answer to these great questions. The major world religions of today are Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, and Judaism.

As a word religion is difficult to define, but as a human experience it is widely familiar. The 20th-century German-born U.S. theologian Paul Tillich gave a simple and basic definition of the word: "Religion is ultimate concern." This means that religion encompasses that to which people are most devoted or that from which they expect to get the most fundamental satisfaction in life. Consequently, religion provides adequate answers to such basic questions as What are the origins of the world? What is the meaning of human life? Why do people die and what happens afterward? Why is there evil? How should people behave?

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